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Will Dockery
See also Will Dockery (1865-1936) LaGrange, Georgia | Died = | Instrument = Vocals | Genre = Rock, folk rock, word jazz, art rock, noise rock, experimental rock | Occupation = Singer-songwriter, pizza delivery and advertising, poet, minicomic creator | Years_active = 1983-present | Label = Independent | Associated_acts = Shadowville All-Stars, Henry F. Conley | URL = Shadowville All-Stars }} Will Dockery (born May 7, 1958) is an American poet, minicomic artist, performance poet, and singer-songwriter. "Will Dockery's voice is unique and fantastic to me in a Spacerock context, some ambient type Spacerock is a riff that builds and changes sometime ever so slightly and is hypnotic. Psychedelic/Spacerock is not for everyone, Will always picks up on the flow of the song and slowly changes with us and spews a poetic beat vibe to it. The T.O.T.M. (Theatre Of The Mind) album will be a acquired taste, kinda like an Alien stew with weird stuff in it and unrecognizable shapes and textures. Or like a Alien child coming out of a human and the suprised looks on the family and medical staff as they realize that this aint no ordinary baby. Basically this album is for the Lava lamp and the Colorwheels..." -Brian Fowler Life Youth and Early Influences The son of Kelly H. Dockery, a World War II and Korean War veteran, later a Howard bus and taxicab driver, and Mildred Whitley, William Abraham Dockery was born in LaGrange, Georgia, where he would visit frequently during childhood, being the home of his maternal grandparents. He lived in Columbus, Georgia, 40 miles south of LaGrange, and both areas meld into the alternate universe of Shadowville in his various works of art. He started playing music in 1961, when he got his first guitar. This early phase in music was cut short, though, when he smashed the guitar over the head of his father, who was napping. He remembers he was emulating a scene he'd seen on an episode of the television series Bonanza or another of the westerns popular in that era. Hank Williams was an early hero, especially after watching Your Cheatin' Heart, the 1964 film of Hank Williams' life story with George Hamilton playing Williams. He attended Waverly Terrace Elementary school, where he won first prize in kindergarden in a school-wide competition for a crayon drawing of a witch, obviously influenced by his early exposure to comic books and film noir, which everything on television resembled in the pre-color era of the 1960s. The next year, in May of 1965, his family moved to the east side of Columbus, where he attended Edgewood Elementary school. There, he wrote his first poetry, influenced by reading Edgar Allan Poe and combining that with ideas influenced by popular music such as The Beatles. at Chattahoochee River, 1977.]] During the 1970s and 1980s, the poetry was written and published at an untrackable level, while in real life Dockery married Kathy Strickland with whom he had two children, Clay Dockery in 1978 and Sarah Milam in 1986. The Atlanta Years (1980-1983) Will Dockery, musing on the Atlanta, Georgia era from Summer of 1980 to Spring of 1983: So much of our old early 1980s Atlanta world is just gone, buried... A recent trip to Atlanta, and bemoaning my old stomping grounds of the early 1980s being paved over with buildings led me to discover the past of that area, Piedmont Road: "...My memories of the area are from around the 1979-84 time period when I lived and worked near there, worked at Carolina Lumber & Supply a bit to the south of this area, on Plaster Bridge Road, and the memories are very vivid. At that time, the Atlanta Flea Market was there, in a building that looked like it was once a department store, although I reckon it could have been the former location of Hastings Nursery, which by that time was located out Lindberg Drive at the corner of Cheshire Bridge Road, a few blocks to the east of Piedmont Road, across from the Varisty Jr. Next to the Flea Market on one side was Shoney's (the caving in building can still be seen there today), and across the street, across Lindberg, from the Flea Market was (in 1979-80) the empty building that once was a Copperfield's nightclub. Across from there was the small strip that housed Ken's Tavern and Moonshadow Saloon, a couple of hopping nightspots for us working class types of the early 1980s. Past that going up Piedmont, and across from the fairly huge Flea Market space was a Sizzling Steaks, and a Zesto's, which, amazingly, is also still in the same spot. Then Broadview Plaza, which was anchored by K-Mart, Picadilly Cafe, and the Screening Room Theaters mentioned earlier. What isn't mentioned is that before becoming movie theaters, the location was the Great Southeastern Music Hall, where many great rock, pop and country acts performed... including the Sex Pistols with their American debut shows! Piedmont Drive-In was before all this by over a decade, and it was forgotten by the time I arrived..." Lost Atlanta, Broadview area 1982 and the Ayn Rand Influence "I first read Ayn Rand back in 1982, and was floored and enthralled by the adventures and thoughts of the iconic characters of The Fountainhead... Howard Roark, the ultimate spokesman for Creator's Rights, Dominique Franken the strong-willed and elusive Muse, Elsworth Tooey the borrower and colaborator, and so on and on. And all of these statements by Paul Ryan, I can agree with and chuckle at the irony of roads not taken... Still fascinating and complicated influence, Ayn Rand. Like Paul Ryan, I can say the same as he dows about the influence of Ayn Rand on my life and art. A couple of quick quotes from Ayn Rand herself (or rather Howard Roark in The Fountainhead) that made me set the book down and say "Yeah..." and move forward as a creator myself, immediately typing up and self-publishing my first chapbook of poems, my First poetic /skyline/... Red Zeros, in the Summer of 1983.", says Will Dockery on this early crossroad in his poetic and working life. The Fountainhead "The creator originates... The creator faces nature alone. The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive. To a creator, all relations with men are secondary... one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution—or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement." -Ayn Rand The Origins of Shadowville When the mill shut down we hit the pavement with a thud then we got up and kept walking. Some to the workhouse some to the poorhouse some to the whorehouse and the grave. -Will Dockery, "Under the Radar" Starting in late 1983, Will Dockery began working at the former Jordan Mill, called officially at the time Cartersville Spinning Mill, and for the rest of the decade and into the next Dockery was involved in that uniquely self contained world of Millrats and that Deep South working class milleu, and the decade long experience has placed the stamp of Southern Gothic Noir on all his work since in one way or another. This could be what Shadowville really is, or was. "When I worked for Cartersville Spinning Mill from October 1983 to September 1990, 7 years, I found myself doing almost everything... elevator operator, booker, records keeper, diplomat, and still managed to create huge volumes of poetry, art, songs and comix during my decade there." -Will Dockery The mill worker's life truly is an alternate world, one that is brought home in various degrees, but some levels and relationships would never happen or survive outside the the fences and gates, the painted over windows, the melodrama and sheer time, sweat, even blood and tears, and the colorful, bizarre and endearing characters that half a lifetime a day is spent with, in 12 hour shifts. Minicomics, Chapbooks and Zines Also during this time he created hundreds of hand made, unpublished minicomics, which included over 500 issues of the adventure serial Uncle Jim, Uncle Jim Comics and Stories had a spinoff comic strip called Tonight Show Starring Uncle Jim, which filled many episodes in which guest hosts filled in for Uncle Jim in a parody of Johnny Carson's television series of the time. In May of 1970 Dockery made his return to music, performing a cover of the Tiny Tim song Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Partial List of Minicomics *Uncle Jim's Comics and Stories (1969-1970) unpublished minicomic. *Various unpublished comic strips including Splut, Virtue Peak, Vulture's Beak, The Assemblers and Tonight Show Starring Uncle Jim (1967-1970) *Terror Time (1970-1974) unpublished horror anthology minicomic. *Le Glass Dildo (1978) mixture of minicomic and poetry. *The Torchbearers (1979-1980) *Shaman Newspaper (1984-1996) minicomic anthology *Demon House Theatre (1985-1988) *River Mutants (1985-1988) I was published in the 1995 Poet's Market hardback ISBN Q-89879-677-6 Reference Poetry (and other years but I don't have those volumes on my knee), Page 248, with a verse from one of my poems as an example of the type of poetry the Publisher was looking for, as "William Dockery", still a few months away from officially becoming "Will" in Summer 1995, and also was listed as Editor of the publication. Google Books does have a scan of the entry: 1995 Poet's Market: Where & How to Publish Your Poetry - Page 248 books.google.com/books?isbn=0898796776 Christine Martin - 1994 - Snippet view - More editions As a sample the publisher selected these lines by William Dockery: Sassanna was painting the back porch, in the early afternoon. ... Sample postpaid: $1 US or free for a SASE from William Dockery at his address above ("greeting card SASE...)-Will Dockery These works continue to the present day in various forms and formats. The 1990s, Poetry Readings and Video appearances The 1990s were a productive and evolutionary time for Will Dockery, as he moved forward from in print potery through Small Press, mail order poetry Chapbooks and quiet family life to the world of Poetry Readings, Open Mics and Performance poetry. Many hours of this was documented, as Will Dockery and other poetry and music friends and comrades were a part of documentary film-makers George Sulzbach and Truman Bentley, Jr.'s multi-part video cassette observation of the poets, artists and oddballs of Columbus, Georgia from the years 1996-2000. These have not been transferred to DVD and were out-of-print until recently. One Day In Shadowville #1 (the epic movie), are the first three parts of the footage converted to digital, and available on YouTube, thus far starring Will Dockery, Bodeen, Rick Howe and George Sulzbach during a day in Shadowville, 1996. In these hundreds of hours of episodes are 1990s open mic & poetry readings, and many current and long gone members of the local scene, performance video & documentary interviews to be added in the months to come in 2013. Later Years "A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl." -Everett Sloan in Citizen Kane. Will Dockery currently resides in western central Georgia, pursuing his lifelong passions for art, music, poetry and performance art, recently appearing with Henry Conley and Gene Woolfolk at Pat's Place in Americus, Georgia June 14, 2008 and performing with the Shadowville All-Stars at music festivals such as Hogbottom and Doo-Nanny and on an annual basis putting on concerts for World AIDS Day in co-operation with local Columbus, Georgia politician Jeremy Hobbs since 2009. A new collection of songs written with Henry F. Conley, Shadowville Speedway Blues was released on compact disc on April 18, 2009. Freedom Fest at Woody's Roadhouse (2002) Brian Fowler wrote in 2002 about the Freedom Fest, which was the seminal influence and template for many of the local Music Festivals, to come, not to mention led to sessions that founded the Shadowville All-Stars. In Brian Fowler's own words: "...Well hello folks! We had the 1st Annual Freedom Festival at Woody's In Juniper Georgia. A amazing weekend w/ lots of old, and New friends. I am going to talk about it each night so you can get a idea of what happened. I am also making a freedom festival website so as the pics keep coming in, we can still add more and more. So if you took alot of pictures that night and want them seen in website, scan and send them to ***@aol.com . I will gladly put them in the website. *Day One: Freedom Log The stage has been set, Shane Stubbs has put in a tremendous amount of work painting the club, setting up the booths and getting the kegs cold and ready for the masses. If you have not been to Woody's, it's this area best kept secret. But after the weekend, Woody's is firmly on the map as far as local music is concerned. Shane has volleyball, horseshoes, pool tables, glass blowers, dunking booths, insense makers etc and so on. We had talked about a festival and we figured we would give it a try. Henry Conley showed up and ran sound on the first night and was a lifesaver. I would like to thank him for his involvement and all his spirit and help which made it go so smooth. The tents were going up and the wood was being put together for the giant bonfire after nightfall. First up on the bill was MOONPROPHET. Moonprophet had Guy Fawlkes (Rick Dukes) on Guitars joined by Will Dockery, Austin Martin and some special guests Brian Follicle and John Joiner. Guy Opened the show in a Hawkfeather mask and tore into "Allah" which is a brilliant piece of music, I ended up running up on stage and joined them, followed by Joiner. Moonprophet played a long set of psychedelic jams and then the stage was set for JONES AVE. Jones came on and did a hour set of songs from their album's "FOLK ART" and "IDIOT's VISION". As the day turned to night, SUPERCZAR came out. This music was harder and has a techno- psychedelic feel. They have a single coming out on Shut EYE records called House of No Windows. Mater Gabe Holland and Brian Follicle played a hour set and played songs from Gabe's album. Cd's were on sale from all the groups. The Jones Ave album is on sale at LINK ARTWORKS for those who did not get one from the show. SUPERCZAR will be starting on a new album being produced by "one night STAN STEPHENS".J JIMMY HOLLAND set in w/ both JONES AVE and SUPERCZAR and showed his master trumpet skills he was a big hit at the festival. After SUPERCZAR came HENRY CONNELY to close out the first night. We all ended up on stage till about 3:00 that morning. Henry played cuts from his great album, available from him or linox.com. One of my highlights was to see everyone getting along so well and enjoying the festival atmosphere. The wide open spaces at Woodie's was comfortable and the folks were very friendly. Great food and great times. People were wearing masks and having a laugh and not being too serious. Great night... *Day 2 (Saturday) The first band up was one of my favorite bands around here called the "SLOTH BAND" I was happy to get one of their cd's and they ripped thru their set playing some originals and covers. Second up was a set from INNOCENT IVY. They played a long set of OZRIC/AMON DUUL type space rock that was good for a event like that. They did a good job and were interesting. After that JONES AVE hit the stage with LASZLO STAN a violinist from Transylvania. He is a one of the best violists you will ever hear. Master Gabe Holland played Congas w/ Dr. David Wisdo and Brian Follicle. We played some covers like "Rider's on the Storm" and "Lucky man" w/ Acoustic instruments mandolin, flutes, violins etc. Kinda like a Pearls before Swine meets Incredible String Band. We did a Hour set and rolled thru some album cuts and had a great time. The crowd was dancing and cutting up and everyone was having a blast. The massive p.a. HAYWIRE rolled out is impressive. They were helpful to all the bands and had an unmatched pro-attitude. We called Shane up and he proposed to Leigh and it was a great time. Haywire hit the stage and the dancing started again. Kenny Miller is incredible on percussion and he is an amazing entertainer, They know how to get a audience rocking out. If you have not seen HAYWIRE you need to.Tthey were really great. 2 drummers, 2 gtrs and a and a great bassist. HAYWIRE played a 2 1/2 hour show and gave the crowd all they could handle. Thanks so Much HAYWIRE for such a solid show. Alot of people made the FREEDOM FESTIVAL happen and alot of bands gave their time and efforts to make this work. Here is a list of the Bands and performers. INNOCENT IVY THE GREAT AMERICAN SLOTH BAND MOON PROPHET JONES AVE WILL DOCKERY HENRY CONLEY HAYWIRE T.O.T.M. (Theatre of the Mind) Dockery has a Spacerock album called Flying Saucer Mechanic with the band T.O.T.M. (Theatre Of The Mind) with Brian David Vaughan and Brian Fowler, released in 2011. T.O.T.M. (Theatre Of The Mind) are an American rock band, usually considered one of the space rock groups, but often delve into an eclectic music variety. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes, and spoken word excursions. Founded by Brian Vaughan (Synthesizers, guitar, loopers, a lot of various effects, software workstation, sound engineering) the current group consists of Vaughan, Brian Fowler (Guitar, bass, theremin, percussion, drums, violin, mandolin, rhodes piano, lyrics & vocals, sound engineering) and Will Dockery (Resident space poet, lyrics & vocal performances). The Shadowville All-Stars "The Shadowville All-Stars provide the musical canvas for the word paintings of Will Dockery, the Poet Laureate of Shadowville. The group represents a vision for a multi-faceted arts ensemble shared by Dockery, Dennis Beck, a San Francisco Bay Area artist living in self-imposed exile in Radio-Free Georgia, and Gene Woolfolk, Jr., jazz-rock flautist and legendary bowling alley DJ. Individually, we are a dozen-or-so merry pranksters who rotate in and out of the lineup at different venues. Collectively we are The Shadowville All-Stars. Artists who share the stage with us in a live performance become Shadowville All-Stars forever. It's kind of like the Baseball Hall-of-Fame, only you can't kicked out for gambling..." -Dennis Beck The story of The Shadowville All-Stars is long and complicated enough to fill a book or two. The very core group was no doubt formed in 2006 by: Dr. BONGO (Dennis Beck): Hawaiian Guitar, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Keyboard/Electronica. Dr. MAGNIFICO (Jordan Beck), Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Keyboard and Bass. Dr. POGO (John Phillips), Drums/Percussion, Keyboard, Bass. Other members quickly followed, Brian Mallard, Gene Woolfolk, Jr., the late Sam Singer, Jim Mothershed, John Joiner and Gary Frankfurth being earliest additions. Influences:Dick Dale and His Deltones, The Ventures, The Chantays, The Shadows, The Surfaris, The Trashmen, The Kingsmen, Echo and The Bunnymen, Buddy Holly and The Crickets, The Animals, The Doors, Santo and Johnny, El Santo, Los Straitjackets, The Ramones, Eric Von Zipper, Man or Astroman, Laika and The Cosmonauts, The Boss Martians, Rod Serling, The Belairs, The Hondells, The Neatbeats, Sandy Nelson, Jack Costanza, The Challengers, The Champs, The Lively Ones, The Mar-Kets, Ry Cooder, Eddie Cochran, Southern Culture on The Skids, Duane Eddy, Johnny Cash, Jan and Dean, Harry Dean Stanton, James Bond, Spies Who Surf, John Barry, The Manatees, The Aqua Velvets, The Duo-Tones, Teisco Del Rey, The Buena Vista Social Club, Huevos Rancheros Sounds Like: What underneath the Santa Cruz pier smells like. -Dennis Beck .]] Reviews and Critique of Will Dockery Throughout his life, Rick Howe wrote hundreds of reviews, essays, short stories, columns, opinion pieces, virtually ever type of writing imaginable. Most of these are not available online as of yet, but we hope to someday find, collect, and present as many of these as we can for the future generations to enjoy. Here's one that does exist, one of the many critiques and reviews How wrote about his friend, the poet William Dockery. To the Magic Store by Will Dockery Will Dockery's New Poems by Rick Howe''Review from ''Topical Studies #5 (January 1, 1993), by Rick Howe (Subheadings added).. To The Magic Store, just released by Will Dockery, is a publication of modest proportions, consisting of a cover illustration followed by seven pages of poetry. At that, there is something aesthetically effective about this simple minibook design. Having issued a series of similar books over the last several years, the author undoubtedly has aquired a certain proficiency with them. It is probably a question, since one is not sure how else to explain it, of /fitting/ or /filling/ - yet not overfilling - a book of this size with an appropriate amount of material, such that one might experience in it a satisfying ampleness, notwithstanding the smallness of its format; at the same time expression must reach completion in the allotted number of pages, and not leave the impression of having been aborted, or that necessary articulations were left out. Judicious resort to ellipsis may indeed be helpful in this regard only providing it does not signify impoverishment. is not the same thing, really. It is indicative that the book proceeds at what seems, at once, a comfortable, unhurried pace; at the same time it is more than the negligible sort of labor which one might expect in the everyday course of things to have done in fifteen minutes or so. Style - In style and temperment, William Dockery's poetry is a little like that of John Berryman - cf., The Dream Songs. A basically sensitive but slightly discombobulated awareness wending its way through hazes of intoxication; the neighborhood milieu. [..when I was staying/ at the boarding house/ across from the park,/ I hated those bells/ and I hated that place./ At the same time I loved it. In essence the theme is search for self. Now, self, in the way in which a poet like William Dockery understands it, is essentially a myth; in other words, a kind of story in which self is revealed and delinated to itself. In fact self cannot appear except through the mediation of external places and people. But the important thing is that these must be interpreted as having transcendental implications which might not be apparent at the level of quotidean experience. So this is what is meant by the poet entering his neighborhood or social milieu in search of self. Myth of origin self first learns to recognize itself; golden age, debacle. These are some of the typical mythic components in life. To keep this on a simple, general level. Of course much subtler comprehensions are also possible. For example, a typical mythification involves a division of life into periods. When I lived on such-and-such street, life had a certain quality; I had these experiences, was aquainted with these people, et cetera. Then I moved somewhere else and it wasn't the same; a period of life came to an end. Thus life may be seen as a succession of /periods/ of greater or shorter duration; each more or less distinguished by objective referents addresses, names of people, each revealing distinctive mythological demensions as well. Content - In To The Magic Store the poet is viewing such a period retrospectively. It is a Proustian /rememberance of things past/ in a way; things are remembered together with their psychological associations, producing a sensation of mythological awareness. is not necessary to spell it out with elaborate detail. The point is simply to intuit how a set of associated names and images creates the effect of milieu or era. Viewed retrospectively, there is of course an emphasis on dissolution. People drift away, some die, and eventually the milieu dissolves. The tone of the book is predominantly one of loss and mourning. In one case the poet later revisits one of his main friends - the speed junkie musician Hugo - and finds he'd been burned in a terrible disaster,/ in a wheelchair and speechless. With its emphasis on the downside of the cycle, To The Magic Store corresponds speaking with a decline and fall - maybe not of a /golden age/, since more or less there is only one full-blown golden age in a lifetime, but of some lesser epicycle which never the less exhibits analogous phases of flourishing and decline. Curiously enough, there is no magic store explicitly mentioned in this book. Given the preoccupation with loss and mortality, a suitable title might have been To The Cemetery. Indeed, the climactic verses tell of taking a girl to a graveyard - to see the grave of the guy who died./ We sat there in this graveyard park,/ with a six-pack of beer./ he looked fragile/ as she drunkenly cried./ She looked open/ to my sensibility... But then, as the poem concludes: :I can still remember :her laughing at my poetry :didn't feel so good to me :after I'd been up all night :pouring out my feelings. :I thought she was interesting, :she turned out :she was just a little female fool. :Was not able to put all the components :of my life in place... :my mythology was incomplete. But the title might have a different and more Proustian meaning. The mythology of self, unfulfilled in initial experience to be sure such mythologies inevitably represent inconclusive aspirations, might be prolonged through acts of memory; where by poetic magic they may be perfected and ternalized - notwithstanding their preliminary frustration in mere circumstances. Perhaps this might shed some light on the mystic quality of a poem like The Ballad of James Collier. A line like I hope some of them are left is perhaps best taken at face value, that is, in its natural sense. Other parts of the poem allude to ghostly reunions - perhaps in some transcendental world where the past continues as a permanent reality - In tiny detail. -Rick Howe, Topical Studies #5, January 1 1993. Used by permission. with Will Dockery at La Maison, Atlanta, Georgia 1981.]] Comic Update, May 11, 1995 Green Ringlets, 50c. Minicomic, eight pages. William Dockery, P.O. Box XXXX, Phenix City, AL 36868. A chapbook, from whence the first poem provides the title. Each book apparently comes with a free coffee stain. (Mine did, anyway.) Care for some disjointed images, rendered with varying degrees of proficiency, complete with a bizarre, Egyptian pharaoh cover? This is the book for you. There's a poem about the south and several about females. I could write this thing up really good, but I'm full. I had to feed the hamburger Dockery threw over the bridge to me to a cat. It was lukewarm, anyway. If I'm to work for food, Dockery, it has to be hot. Anyway, the onion rings were good. For those I'll quoth several of his better lines: "Answers like seeds being dispersed into "the breeze... "...We stood in the marsh of reeds... "...The Science Ladies "wandering inside my soul (pg. 5)." There ya go. Thank God Wilson quit publishing.'' -Andrew Roller'' felt, 50c postpaid. Minicomic, eight pages. William Dockery, P.O. Box XXXX, Phenix City, AL 36868. On the back cover of this tome is written the words, "Second Printing." I was going to joke that with Dockery, this means my copy is not only the second printing but the second copy. However, this damn thing is actually very well written. Maybe he did actually print more than one copy in the first printing, and sold out! felt begins poorly, but picks up at the top of page four. Then things really get going at the bottom of page four, and the lines roll on through thunderous poetic crescendoes right to the end. There are amazing images here; Tatumville park, the memory of Tracy, the father who's "a grey cat," even a lake of disappearing paths. I highly recommend this chapbook on two counts, as a stunning book of poems and as a sample of the best the comics small press has to offer.'' -Andrew Roller'' Comic Update 140, 141, 55c each. Minicomic, 8 pages. Frank G. Lloyd Jr., P.O. Box xxx, Richwood, W.V. 26261-0486. Comic Update is the oldest living small press reviewzine. Begun in August 1986 by the immortal Andrew Roller, Update has struggled through various publishers over the years and, amazingly, has been published on a rigorously consistent basis. These are statements that can be made of no other zine in the comics small press. Yet, for all its fortitude, Update has continually been subscribed to by less people than almost any other reviewzine. It's probably had more publishers in its lifetime than subscribers. This is not to say that Update has passed unnoticed through the comics world. Nearly everyone in small press has written at least one nasty letter to Update (all published, with spelling errors pointed out by Roller's remorseless sic). Both the mighty and the unknown have been excoriated in Update's pages. Update was even investigated in a face-to-face confrontation by the F.B.I. The Update tradition of potent, even toxic commentary on the small press continues in this latest pair of issues. Lynn Hansen takes Andrew Roller's Naughty Naked Dreamgirls #11 to task for "not setting a good example for younger readers...who may practice sex indiscriminately...and so get AIDS." Lloyd delivers a short but devastatingly humorous editorial against Comics F/X, and even manages to liken Ian Shires to Jeffrey Dahlmer. Dockery provides insight to the life and recent death of Freddy Mercury as a part of his regular "Like a Monkey on My Back" column in Update. Whether you knew or cared about this singer, Dockery's writing (particularly in this installment of his column) struck me as absolutely fascinating. Mike Taylor is present with his prickly review column in Update #140. Taylor is an excellent addition to the Update team, still a relative newcomer, having been with this zine for only about 35 issues. The mainstay of Update, of course, is Lynn Hansen, with his educated, well-rounded reviews of both small press and independent comics. I would suggest to Brooks, Dockery, Roller, and whoever else is involved in Fugitive Factsheet that they get Hansen on their team. His prescient reviews of independent comics are just what Fugitive Factsheet needs to get into mainstream comics stores. But then, I'm just a newcomer. For a cup of coffee I'll review anything, even a comic by William Dockery.'' -Andrew Roller'' Known Associates * - Jim Pontius * - George Sulzbach * - Tito Wals * - pd wilson * - Gene Woolfolk, Jr. * - Henry F. Conley * - Wes Sprunger * - George Buck * - Brian Fowler * - Dan Barfield Hangouts and Performance Venues * - Hogbottom (Fort Mitchell, Alabama) April 27th 2013 this year. * - Majestic Diner (Atlanta, Georgia) * - The Dockery Foundation The Dockery Foundation is Autism Education One Person at a Time. Early intervention and programs like The Dockery Foundation strive to help educate everyone. — “The Dockery Foundation :: Autism Education...One Person at a Time”, * - Ken's Tavern (Atlanta, Georgia) Closed. * - Doo-Nanny (Seale, Alabama) * - Dinglewood Pharmacy (Columbus, Georgia) Although the Scrambled Dog was said to be created by Firm Roberts. * - The Alley behind Rhino's on Broad (Columbus, Georgia) * - SoHo Bar and Grill (Columbus, Georgia) Publications Poetry Chapbooks *''Red Zeros'' - Summer 1983 *''Topaz Cube'' - Summer 1984 *''Blood Skeleton'' - Summer 1984 *''Green Ringlets'' - 1989 *''felt'' -1990 [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.zines/msg/c2c6b40a56757929?hl=en alt.zines review of felt from January 7 1996] felt, 50c postpaid. Minicomic, eight pages. William Dockery, P.O. Box xxxx, Phenix City, Alabama 36868. On the back cover of this tome is written the words, "Second Printing." I was going to joke that with Dockery, this means my copy is not only the second printing but the second copy. However, this damn thing is actually very well written. Maybe he did actually print more than one copy in the first printing, and sold out! felt begins poorly, but picks up at the top of page four. Then things really get going at the bottom of page four, and the lines roll on through thunderous poetic crescendoes right to the end. There are amazing images here; Tatumville park, the memory of Tracy, the father who's "a grey cat," even a lake of disappearing paths. I highly recommend this chapbook on two counts, as a stunning book of poems and as a sample of the best the comics small press has to offer. -Andrew Roller, January 7 1996 in alt.zines *'' To The Magic Store'' -1993 *''April Bullets'' -1995 *''Secret Madrigals'' -1997 *''Problems In Time'' -1997 *''Hard Return'' -1998 *''Opera Positions'' -1998 *''Sea Weed Fox'' -1999 *''White Irony'' -2000 *''Ice Cream From Venus'' -2000 *''Brain Green'' - 2001 Audio / video Discography * Bag of Groceries (1982) material written and recorded with Jim Pontius and P.D. Wilson, possibly lost and/or deteriorated tapes. * Shadowville All-Starshttp://www.myspace.com/shadowvilleallstars(2006-13) material written with Dennis Beck and Brian Mallard and others, including: **Over You (Written by Will Dockery, Brian Mallard & [[Jack Snipe])] **Red Lipped Stranger (Written by Will Dockery & Brian Mallard) **Black Crow's Brother (Written by Will Dockery & Gini Woolfolk) **She Sleeps Tight (Written by Will Dockery & Brian Mallard) **Silver Blazing Sun (Written by Will Dockery & Brian Mallard) * [Dockery-Conley (1998-2011) material written with Henry F. Conley, including Ozone Stigmata, Fadeaway Encounter and others.: :Shadowville Speedway (Written by Will Dockery & Henry Conley) :Truck Stop Woman (Written by Will Dockery & Henry Conley) :Twilight Girl (Written by Will Dockery & Henry Conley) :Ozone Stigmata (Written by Will Dockery & Henry Conley) :Waking Up Now (Written by Will Dockery, Henry Conley, Gene Woolfolk & Sandy Madaris) * Shadowville Speedway ep A five song sampler compact disc released June 11 2008, 1.) Shadowville Speedway 2.) Twilight Girl 3.) Fadeaway Encounter 4.) Ragpicker Joe 5.) Surgeon General. All songs written by Will Dockery and Henry Conley. * Shadowville Speedway compact disc album, released April 18, 2009. Video appearances Various peformances of Will Dockery are available on YouTube, including *Ozone Stigmata, written with Henry Conley. *Truck Stop Woman, written with Henry Conley. *Last Dream Today, written with Brian Mallard. *The Ride/Combat Zone, written with Dennis Beck. See Also '' '' *Shadowville Speedway *List of U.S. poets *List of minicomics creators *Parnello's Pizza *Minicomic co-ops *Shadowville All-Stars *To the Magic Store by Will Dockery References External links ;Poems *"Ganesha Girl on Rankin" *"Red Lipped Stranger" *"She Sleeps Tight" *"Sky Song" *Archived poetry by Will Dockery ;Audio / video *[http://www.reverbnation.com/willdockery/song/12609809-under-the-radar-for-sam-singer Under the Radar] For Sam Singer *[http://www.archive.org/details/OzoneStigmataByWillDockery Ozone Stigmata video by Will Dockery and Henry F. Conley] Cool music and cool video *[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lZ3VAmNTWc The Ride (Combat Zone) Shadowville All-Stars] Video by Janis Petersen. *Will Dockery and The Shadowville Allstars video * Will Dockery at YouTube * *Shadowville All-Stars Official Website. ;Etc. *Columbus GA Topix *Will Dockery's artificial intelligence experiment *Dockery Searches for S & Gs *Shadowville-Netherlands cultural exchange project *Shadowville All-Stars photos page Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Americans Category:American singers Category:American songwriters Category:People from Columbus, Georgia Category:21st-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets Category:American poets Category:Songwriters